A great mystery to me when I was growing up, was the fluffy pancake. What made it so puffy in the oven? Recently I tried experimenting to make a gluten free version of the fluffy pancake. I love the fluffy or German pancake because it’s one of those quick and easy breakfasts I can whip up on a weekend morning that feels special but doesn’t take too much time. Pair it with my mixed berry fruit salad (See below for recipe), powdered sugar and lemon juice or maple syrup for a delectable treat. If you are feeding a crowd, double the recipe and baked in a 9×13 pan. One pancake serves 2-4 people.

While researching how to make a gluten free version, all the websites recommended against using a flour substitute that DID NOT have xanthan gum. Since all my flour bends already have xanthan gum, I used Bob’s Red Mill’s gluten free oat flour, and it turned out delicious! My husband couldn’t tell it was gluten free, which is my quality control test. Another tip, is use a pre-heated baking dish or cast iron skillet for best results.

Tomorrow is the first day of autumn, and I absolutely love this season! Fall means apples, pumpkins, colorful leaves, sweaters, leggings and boots, and hot beverages all day long. We have been getting a plethora of apple from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share, so I have been experimenting with gluten free apple desserts. I’ve created this recipe which is loosely based off of a Dutch Apple Pie, and I gotta say, it’s really delicious! Since it only has one crust instead of two, it’s easier to make than a traditional pie and also lower in calories!

Pasta Primavera a la “Zoodles.”

Summer means an abundance of fresh, seasonal vegetables. Especially that iconic, multi-purpose vegetable- zucchini! I enjoy roasting zucchini, baking with zucchini, and making zucchini noodles. Zucchini noodles make a delicious gluten free, low carb and super healthy alternative to regular pasta. Plus, this meal comes together in about 20-30 minutes! I made my zoodles with the Zoodler, but you could also try a spiralizer, or KitchenAid attachment.

Recipe for Pasta Primavera Veggie Noodles

Veggie Noodles

1 medium zucchini

1 large carrot

1 medium onion, sliced very thin

1-2 TB minced garlic

1 cup frozen peas

Olive oil

Primavera Sauce

1-2 cups chicken or vegetable broth

2-4 TB cornstarch

1/4 cup white wine (optional)

Italians Seasonings, pepper, salt to taste

Parmesan cheese

Directions

Combine cornstarch with cold chicken broth and stir until dissolved. Set aside.

Heat olive oil and garlic in 5 quart sauce pan.

After 1 minute, add onions to the pan and heat them up while you are preparing the carrot and zucchini noodles.

Grate carrot and zucchini using a Zoodler machine, spiralizer or Kitchen Aid attachment.

When onions are translucent, add carrot to pan with onions and garlic and heat for about 5-10 minutes. Then add zucchini noodles and peas.

Ever since I was a little girl, my favorite summer time dessert, other than my mom’s famous “Buster Bar” ice cream cake (more on that later), has been strawberry short cake. Since strawberries and whipped cream are already gluten free, it’s a relatively easy dessert to adapt into a gluten free version. Hope you enjoy!

Joelle Bella’s Gluten Free Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients

1 cup almond flour

1.5 cups Bob’s Redmill Gluten Free One to One Flour Blend (divided)

2 TB cornstarch

2 TB sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

4 TB butter, cold and cut into pea sized pieces

1 cup buttermilk or 3/4 cup milk with 2 tsp vinegar

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray. Combine almond flour, 1 cup of Bob’s Red Mill one to one gluten free blend, cornstarch, sugar, salt and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Cut butter into pea sized chunk and gradually cut into flour mixture with a fork or pastry blender until evenly distributed. Pour buttermilk into mixture and mix until just combined. Add the rest of Bob’s Red Mill One to One flour blend, as needed, until dough is able to be rolled out into a one inch thickness. Cut dough into circles using the edge of a glass, or biscuit cutter. Place biscuits onto pan, and arrange into two columns so that they are touching each other. Bake for 15 minutes or until biscuits begin to brown on the bottom. While biscuits are baking, make the toppings!

Toppings

1 lb Strawberries, washed and sliced

3 TB granulated sugar

8oz heavy whipping cream

1 tsp Vanilla Extract (optional)

3 TB powdered sugar (optional)

Directions: To make toppings, toss strawberries in 2-3 TB sugar, mash slightly to release juices. Can also add blueberries for a patriotic dessert!

Looking for a coffee cake recipe that tastes delicious, but contains no refined carbs and a fraction of the added sugars compared to traditional coffeecake? Look no further! This recipe is family tested and approved for flavor and texture (i.e., just as good as the “normal” stuff).

As a dietitian, I have three criteria for my recipes.

They need to taste good.

They need to be made of mostly “good for you” ingredients.

They need to be easy to make and contain easily available ingredients.

This coffee cake recipe is gluten free, “good for you,” and tastes just as good as traditional coffee cake. This recipe features whole grain oat flour, almond flour and coconut flour, a combination which is chock full of fiber, protein, and healthy fats, as well as vitamin E, magnesium and iron. Unlike a lot of gluten free replacements, this coffee cake is rich in flavor, texture and nutritional value!

Gluten Free Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Dry Ingredients

2 cups almond flour (not almond meal)**

1 cup gluten free oat flour (or grind oats* in a food processor until they turn into a fine powder)

Dietitians often use the “Healthy Plate,” combined with portion control, to help people plan healthy meals in order to help control their blood sugar, lower cholesterol and to lose weight. The healthy plate is similar to the USDA’s “My Plate,” except that half of the plate is just vegetables, instead of fruits and vegetables. The other half of the plate is divided evenly between lean proteins and high carb (and hopefully high fiber!) foods. Also, corn, potatoes, and peas count as a starch, not a vegetable. Beans and legumes count as a protein and a starch. There you have it- the healthy plate in a nutshell!

How does the healthy plate method help with weight loss and blood sugar control? Vegetables are high in fiber, water, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, and very low in calories. As you eat more vegetables, you will naturally start eating less of the high calorie, high carb, high fat foods that contribute to chronic disease and weight gain when consumed in excess.

The main problem of the typical American diet, is that it is full of high fat proteins and highly refined carbs, with very little room for vegetables. If you are like most Americans, as far as your diet goes, Incorporating more vegetables into your diet is the #1 most important thing you could do to improve your health and your family’s health.

Since veggies are so important, I decided to share what eating the healthy plate way would look like throughout the day and give you some tips to get started.

Breakfast:

Breakfast Burritos

Toss a handful of spinach into the pan while frying your eggs.

Toss in a handful of spinach or kale to your favorite Smoothie Recipe.

Make a meal out of your salad. Salads are a great way to fill up on vegetables, but they don’t always fill me up. To make a salad a complete meal, add some lean proteins like baked or grilled chicken, a hard boiled egg or roasted chickpeas. Then add a high fiber carb, like cooked quinoa, corn or more beans. For more filling power, add a sprinkling of sunflower seeds, almonds or avocado.

Add leftover steamed or roasted veggies from the night before to your lunch sandwich or wrap

Take vegetable soup or stew to work with you.

Snacks: Try Veggies and Hummus or veggies and dip

Dinner: Veggie should be the main event at dinner time!

Start Dinner with a simple side salad

Sauté or Roast Fresh Vegetables to go with your dinner.

Steam frozen vegetables in the microwave, sprinkle with some cheese or your favorite dressing.

Summer time means an abundance of locally grown fresh fruit! Lately, we have been getting lots of peaches from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share. Since I’m allergic to raw peaches (who knew that was a thing?!), I’ve been making a gluten free version of peach cobbler with oats and nuts. This is one of my favorite summer time breakfasts or desserts! Hope you enjoy!

I have relocated every year for the past 4 years. And once a year, for the past 4 years, I have packed all my books into boxes, and dragged, tugged, and heaved them along with me. Classics, modern novels, textbooks, self help books, reference books, cookbooks, biographies, political books, relationship books and more- all of them have been packed, unpacked, and repacked four times! I kept some books because I wanted to read them or thought I might need to read them someday, I kept some because I thought I should read them someday, and I kept some because I had already read them, and used to love them. Curiously, the one thing I rarely did is actually read any of my books! Can anyone relate to this?!

When I got married, my husband’s books were added to the mix as well, but thankfully he has a fraction of the books I own. All combined, we owned enough books to fill two tacky “Room Essentials” bookshelves from Target with a few extra books shoved in random places around the house.

This past move, I decided I was sick and tired of moving all those books! They had become a drag, literally and metaphorically. Each time I thought I might like to read a book, I would get overwhelmed by looking at all the options, or feel a sense of obligation to read books I wasn’t interested in anymore. I felt like I should read the books I had, before buying or borrowing any new books. Silly, I know, but that’s the way my brain worked.

I had gone through our books before and thinned them out, but this time I was ruthless. I don’t remember using any “criteria” to determine which books to keep and which to get rid of, but generally, if a book could easily be found at the library, it was donated. If a book had been sitting on my shelf for the past 5 years without me actually reading it, I got rid of it. If I wasn’t interested in the topic anymore, I got rid of it. I realized that there’s no reason to keep books that don’t fit into my interests or life stage.

All told, my husband and I donated over half of our books to the Good Will, which also allowed us to get rid of one of our bookcases. I expected to enjoy the extra space we gained by getting rid of the books, but I didn’t expect that I would start reading so much more as well!

Letting go of all those books freed me to start pursuing current interests by reading new books. If I hear of a book I want to read, I look for it at the library, or in our library’s e-book collection. I’ve also bought some e-books on amazon and some hard copies from thrift stores. The wonderful thing about borrowing books from the library, is that you have a reason to start reading because you have “deadline” for finishing the book. Also, if you start reading something and then realize you don’t like it, it’s not a big deal to stop reading it. I also keep a journal with a running list of all the books I’ve read since 2000. So if I really want to re-read a book, I can always look it up on my list and borrow it from the library, rather than owning it.

So how did getting rid of all those books impact my reading level? Well, last year, I read 7 books. (Pathetic, I know!) This year, I’ve read 12 books, and it’s only April! If I keep up the pace, I’ll have read 36 books by the end of the year, that’s 5 times more books than I read last year!

One thing I have learned from this experiment, is that books don’t have to stay in your life forever in order for you to enjoy them or get value from them. You don’t even have to read a book all the way through to get something out of it. Read it, take what you want, and then let it go. If you really need that book again in the future, it will come back to you. The true value of a book comes from what you take from it, not from what you put back on the shelf.

What about you? Do you have shelves full of books that aren’t being read? Are you in a reading rut? Maybe it’s time to let your books have a chance to inspire others, and make room in your life for new books!